Good Jobs

The Kentucky economy must not only create jobs, but good jobs--that is, full-time jobs that pay wages better than the state's per capita income, that offer healthcare benefits and that benefit Kentuckians. Kentucky could start by tying incentives to the creation of good jobs. The New York Times found that Kentucky gave away 1.41 billion dollars in incentives with little evidence of the effectiveness of those incentives. Effective incentives must be highly targeted on export-based businesses, create actual jobs as opposed to "announced" jobs, pay above average wages, have high multiplier effects and require employers to hire Kentucky residents. Performance agreements should be publicly disclosed and include "clawbacks" in the event the company fails to meet its targets. Incentive programs that meet rigorous cost-benefit analysis and have a positive rate of return should be expanded while those that fail to meet those requirement should be eliminated.